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Thus we come to our enquiry as to the degree of excellence
found in things of this Sphere, and how far they belong to an
ordered system or in what degree they are, at least, not evil.
Now in every living being the upper parts- head, face- are the
most beautiful, the mid and lower members inferior. In the
Universe the middle and lower members are human beings; above
them, the Heavens and the Gods that dwell there; these Gods with
the entire circling expanse of the heavens constitute the greater
part of the Kosmos: the earth is but a central point, and may be
considered as simply one among the stars. Yet human wrong-doing
is made a matter of wonder; we are evidently asked to take
humanity as the choice member of the Universe, nothing wiser
existent!
But humanity, in reality, is poised midway between gods and
beasts, and inclines now to the one order, now to the other; some
men grow like to the divine, others to the brute, the greater
number stand neutral. But those that are corrupted to the point
of approximating to irrational animals and wild beasts pull the
mid-folk about and inflict wrong upon them; the victims are no
doubt better than the wrongdoers, but are at the mercy of their
inferiors in the field in which they themselves are inferior,
where, that is, they cannot be classed among the good since they
have not trained themselves in self-defence.
A gang of lads, morally neglected, and in that respect inferior
to the intermediate class, but in good physical training, attack
and throw another set, trained neither physically nor morally,
and make off with their food and their dainty clothes. What more
is called for than a laugh?
And surely even the lawgiver would be right in allowing the
second group to suffer this treatment, the penalty of their sloth
and self-indulgence: the gymnasium lies there before them, and
they, in laziness and luxury and listlessness, have allowed
themselves to fall like fat-loaded sheep, a prey to the wolves.
But the evil-doers also have their punishment: first they pay in
that very wolfishness, in the disaster to their human quality:
and next there is laid up for them the due of their Kind: living
ill here, they will not get off by death; on every precedent
through all the line there waits its sequent, reasonable and
natural- worse to the bad, better to the good.
This at once brings us outside the gymnasium with its fun for
boys; they must grow up, both kinds, amid their childishness and
both one day stand girt and armed. Then there is a finer
spectacle than is ever seen by those that train in the ring. But
at this stage some have not armed themselves- and the duly armed
win the day.
Not even a God would have the right to deal a blow for the
unwarlike: the law decrees that to come safe out of battle is for
fighting men, not for those that pray. The harvest comes home not
for praying but for tilling; healthy days are not for those that
neglect their health: we have no right to complain of the ignoble
getting the richer harvest if they are the only workers in the
fields, or the best.
Again: it is childish, while we carry on all the affairs of our
life to our own taste and not as the Gods would have us, to
expect them to keep all well for us in spite of a life that is
lived without regard to the conditions which the Gods have
prescribed for our well-being. Yet death would be better for us
than to go on living lives condemned by the laws of the Universe.
If things took the contrary course, if all the modes of folly and
wickedness brought no trouble in life- then indeed we might
complain of the indifference of a Providence leaving the victory
to evil.
Bad men rule by the feebleness of the ruled: and this is just;
the triumph of weaklings would not be just.
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